


Birthing Pains

by ThereIsOnlyZuul



Category: Mass Effect, Quarians - Fandom
Genre: Drama, F/M, Prequel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-09
Updated: 2015-11-09
Packaged: 2018-04-30 20:09:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5178050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThereIsOnlyZuul/pseuds/ThereIsOnlyZuul
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zane and Mena, a Quarian husband and wife, are scouting a planet that they could one day call home. But problems arise when Mena feels her first birthing pains. With no one around the lonely planet to help, Zane fears the worst. The Quarians are OC but a Normandy crew member makes an appearance in this prequel (of sorts).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Birthing Pains

**Author's Note:**

> I love Mass Effect! Yet it's taken me so long to sit and write a fanfiction. Well I finally did and it ended a lot differently than I'd planned. It's a prequel. Of sorts. And yes, humans do show up to save the day, what can I say, I've got a soft spot for humans ;)
> 
> Anyways, read and enjoy and please review - I'd love the feedback!
> 
> Cheers :)

______________________________________________

The pain came suddenly. They were sharp, cutting pains from her belly to her sex. It was pain that couldn't be ignored, and since becoming pregnant, Mena'Xedor vas Idenna, had become quite proficient in ignoring pain, be it her swollen feet or her aching back. But this pain was different and made her clutch desperately at the trunk of a tree to balance herself.

"Keelah!"

The Quarian walking a little ways in front of Mena stopped and turned. "Mena?" He strode quickly back to where his wife grasped a tree in a frantic attempt to keep herself upright. "Mena, what's wrong?"

"The baby…" Mena gasped as she held her trembling hand to her belly. "The baby is coming!"

______________________________________________

Zane'Loram vas Idenna had come to Baor as a scout.

There was hope that Baor might be colonized by the Quarians to replace Rannoch, the world they'd lost to the Geth. Baor was in the Perseus Veil but far enough away from Geth controlled space to be safe. It had an atmosphere to support vegetation and a number of small indigenous animals. Quarians would have to continue wearing their environmental suits, but they would have to wear them everywhere else regardless of whether they colonized this lonely little planet on the outskirts of the Tikkun system.

Baor had also not been claimed by any other species. The Volus had tried once, years before, but were scared off by the threat of the Geth. In the Veil, Geth were always a threat. Quarians were the only species that didn't fear the Geth: for good reason really. They had–and could again–fight them off.

Baor could be the Quarians' salvation.

The Conclave, the most trusted Quarians from all clans and ships were brought together to discuss what could be done. It had been decided that a single scout would be sent to Baor to traverse the surface for a day and a night.

Zane'Loram had campaigned to go: so had many other young men. The Conclave had weighed their options with each young Quarian and then voted. Zane was chosen. They hadn't known at the time that choosing Zane they'd also chosen his headstrong wife Mena. They'd been, to say the least, surprised when she'd boarded the small vessel that would take Zane to Baor and not return for him until a day and night had passed.

Zane had fallen in love with Mena because she was such a wilful and intelligent woman, but as he sat in the small shuttle across from his wife on route to Baor, he wondered if he shouldn't have married a more timid woman, a woman who'd taken her Pilgrimage on a small human colony, not a woman who'd taken her rights of passage on Omega: the galaxy's seediest Vorcha infested hole.

He'd argued with her for days to stay behind on the Idenna with their two mothers to wait for the birth of their child but, if Mena was anything, she was determined. If Zane was going off the Flotilla for a scouting mission, heavily pregnant or not, Mena was going too.

"The baby is coming?" Zane gasped. "Are you sure?"

"This pain… is not normal…" Mena replied with gasps of her own.

This was what had worried Zane so much about Mena coming with him. They had been sent down in radio silence to avoid any unsavoury persons picking up on their presence and, even though Baor was far enough away from the Geth controlled space to be safe, it was also far enough away from where the Flotilla was to be dangerous should an emergency arise. Mena had said that a day wouldn't matter. She was close to her birth date, but not that close. Everything would be fine.

Well, suddenly everything wasn't fine, and Zane's frantic breathing was on pace to match his wife's.

"Calm yourself Zane," Mena chided. "You'll fog up your mask and that won't help anyone."

"What will we do?"

"When does the shuttle come back to pick us up?"

"Not until sunset–twelve hours from now!"

"Twelve hours is not so long," Mena replied through gritted teeth. A harsh pang of pain had torn through her stomach but it was ebbing. A dull ache remained but she was able to push herself away from the tree and support herself again. "My mother, and her mother had very long labours. When my mother felt her first birthing pains I wasn't born until three days later." Mena began walking in the direction that they had been walking in before. She limped slightly, as every step caused a twinge in her belly, but until the next sharp contraction came she would be fine to move about.

"Are you in pain, sweet one?" Mena was limping and it tore at Zane in a way even biotics couldn't.

"Not too much," she replied. She was hoping to keep the pain out of her voice but couldn't quite and her voice wavered.

Zane strode quickly to his wife's side. He grabbed her hand in his and squeezed tightly. "Please don't lie to make me feel better. If you're in pain, tell me."

"I am fine, Zane. Really. If it gets to be unbearable we have more than enough medi-gel."

"Medi-gel! Yes, of course, have some now!" Zane exclaimed as he brought up his omni-tool.

Mena put her delicate hand on Zane's arm to stop him from administrating the drug. "Calm yourself Zane'Loram. I am fine for now. These are just the first birthing pains. There will be days more of them."

Zane wanted to believe Mena's words but this was to be his first child. If it survived the birth, it would be his only child since the Flotilla had a strict one child policy. He wanted everything to go smoothly: for his wife to experience as little pain as possible and for his son or daughter to be healthy. What were the chances of that happening here on the surface of a lonely little planet without hygienic tools and a sterile environment? Without an incubator for the baby and boaster shots for Mena when she removed her enviro-suit to birth it, surely they would both succumb to infection and die!

"Mena, what if you're different? What if you have a short labour? What if the baby is ready now?"

Mena shrugged. "What are the odds of that?"

"They're nothing I would bet on," Zane muttered quietly.

"Well," Mena said with a small laugh as she continued walking. "You've never really been a betting man, have you?"

______________________________________________

The prediction of a long and arduous labour appeared to be coming to pass as hour after hour ticked away. Mena and Zane walked through the forest, their feet crunching on the coniferous-like needles that littered the ground, heading back to where the shuttle was scheduled to pick them up.

Mena would stop every thirty minutes or so to clutch her swollen belly and Zane would fret about her like an anxious Salarian, offering medi-gel and kind words and to carry her if she was feeling faint. She would wave her hand dismissively, saying she was fine and then a moment of tense silence would pass and she would be fine: standing up straight and striding through the woods once again.

It was high noon on Baor when the pair crested a hill that looked out over a valley. They stopped for a moment to take in their surroundings. The planet really was beautiful with its vast forest and red tinged sky. A flock of small avian creatures took to the sky with squawks of indignation when Zane's omni-tool suddenly binged and shattered the silence.

"What is it?" Mena asked.

"A large deposit of gold. I'll mark it on the map." Zane entered their current location, noting their distance travelled so far. It wasn't nearly as far as he'd calculated they'd go, but considering his wife's unpredicted labour, the distance was impressive. He doubted he'd be able to do as much if he was the one with the life inside him struggling to enter the galaxy.

"We passed several small deposits of gold earlier too. This planet just keeps getting better and better."

A moment of silence past.

"Zane..."

He looked to his wife. She was leaning against a tree, her hands clutching desperately at her belly.

"Mena!"

"Medi-gel–now!" She gasped. Zane brought up his arm and tapped frantically at his omni-tool trying to exit his mapping function and get into the medical function. Once he finally did and administered the medi-gel, Mena gasped again but it was one of relief, not pain.

"Is that better, sweet one?"

"Much better."

"Are the pains always that bad?"

"No. That one was... different."

"Please, please let me carry you now."

"Alright." She replied without protest.

That was not a good sign. She was always so headstrong, so hellbent on her own path she never accepted help when she was offered it. Her sudden admission to needing assistance did not bode well.

______________________________________________

Zane carried his wife through the woods. She wasn't too heavy but the terrain was uneven and he found himself nearly shaking at the thought of dropping his pregnant wife. Every time he took a step he imagined his two-toed foot giving out from below him and falling atop Mena.

It was a strain.

"Zane... medi-gel..." Mena murmured weakly. She was passing in and out of conciseness regularly, asking for medi-gel when she came too and passing out again almost as soon as she got it.

"Yes, sweet one, of course." He stopped and gently lowered Mena to the ground. He nestled her in the large roots of a tree, sitting on the same roots so he himself could rest.

He brought up his omni-tool to administer the drug, but a proximity alarm blinked on his display and distracted him from his task. "What now?" He muttered as he brought it up.

"What... is it?" Mena asked with a groan.

Zane read the information that had been transmitted. "It's a ship."

"A ship?" Mena gasped. "A Quarian ship?"

"No."

"Then who?"

"I can't tell. I can't get into their ship's detail logs. It's landing nearby though."

"Hail them..."

"I can't risk that!" Zane said. "Who knows who they are or what they're doing here!"

"They're not Geth! We'd know if they were Geth!"

"They could still be anyone else. A group of mercenaries, slavers, or pirates come to fight varren!"

"Zane... please... I'd take a Batarian or Krogan ship... if they'd give us a ride off this planet..."

He doubted even the kindest of Batarian or Krogan would give him and his pregnant wife a ride back to the Flotilla, but Mena was right, they didn't have any other options at the moment. They'd have to take their chances with whoever was landing and hope they'd be merciful.

Zane stood. He administered a dose of medi-gel to Mena before he scooped her back up in his arms and began their approach of the unknown ship.

______________________________________________

The ship didn't have any identifiable marks or insignia on the outside of it. Nor did it fall into any distinct design that would give away what species was inside it. He placed Mena on the ground once more and tapped away at his omni-tool to see if he could get any information at all.

The bay doors opened as he was attempting to crack into their personal files. He glanced up at the ship every few seconds from where he hid in the shadowy forest, awaiting whatever species was going to emerge.

"Help!"

Zane started at the sudden cry for help. He looked to where he'd left Mena, just a few feet to the left of where he now stood hiding behind a tree. She wasn't there! She was hobbling out from between the trees and into the clearing that the craft had landed in. She clutched one hand to her belly and waved one above her head.

"Help me!"

"Mena!"

Zane rushed forward to stop his wife from drawing any attention, but it was too late. Three fully armed individuals rushed from the open bay doors, their rifles pointed right at his wife.

"Stop where you are!" One of them shouted.

"Help me!" Mena cried, as she continued to move towards them.

Zane emerged from the woods and suddenly the three rifles were pointed at him. He threw his hands into the air to show he wasn't armed. From the peripheral of his mask he watched Mena stop moving forward and slowly collapse to her knees. He turned to rush to her.

"Stop or we'll fire!"

"Put your guns down!" A fourth figure commanded as she exited the ship. The three did as told immediately. Zane saw now that they were humans as the commanding officer emerged without a helmet. She was an older woman, with many fine lines on her face and grey in her hair. She carried herself like someone who'd seen it all. Zane prayed that her experiences had made her empathetic and not ruthless.

"It's two Quarians, ma'am."

"I knew the life readings weren't malfunctioning. There are two other sentient beings here. Who are you?"

"Please!" Zane exclaimed. "We're just a scouting mission. We mean no harm. But my wife–" Zane turned to look at his wife down on the soft ground on her knees, clutching her stomach like she was trying to hold herself together. "We need your help!"

"What's wrong?"

"She's having a baby!" Zane exclaimed.

The three that held rifles looked around at each other. "Ma'am," the one in front said, "I don't think we're equipped for that."

"We're equipped for just about everything. That includes babies. We might not have everything a Quarian needs, but we can sure as hell try. Come aboard, you two, and quickly. She looks like she needs a stronger dose of medi-gel and you," she said pointing at Zane, "look as if you could use a stiff drink."

______________________________________________

The human craft, named the R.V. Sagan, was a small one, with only the commanding science officer, two scientists, a pilot, an Alliance assigned doctor, and five rifle totting soldiers. They'd come to Baor to research the avian creatures that had been so perturbed by Zane's omni-tool.

Leave it to humans to dive head-first into one of the most dangerous places in space like it was nothing.

"Thank you for letting us abroad," Zane said as he cradled Mena in his arms. He followed after the commanding officer, one Ava Wayne, through the ship and towards the medical bay. She walked briskly and the corridors of the small craft were cramped but to get his wife to safety was worth any trial.

"It's my firm belief that if humans want to be respected within the intergalactic community we need to step up and help those that need it." They arrived at the medical bay. "Doctor!" She shouted as the doors slid open.

The doctor, a very young woman with her long, black hair pulled into a tight bun and her blue eyes intelligent and alert, looked up from where she sat at a small desk. She dropped what she was doing when Zane burst through the door: Mena limp and groaning in his arms.

"My god, what's happened here?" The doctor asked as she rushed over. She pointed Zane towards one of the bunks and followed after him, her omni-tool moving back and forth over Mena.

"She's having a baby," the Commander stated matter-of-factly. "I know this isn't what the Alliance promised you when you enlisted but–"

"No need to explain," the doctor said, throwing up her hand to stop her Commander from continuing. "I became a doctor to help. I've taken and aced alien biology courses, and besides," she said with a small smile, "what kind of doctor would I be if I couldn't deliver a baby?"

"Then I'll leave it to you, Doctor Chakwas." The Commander exited the medical bay leaving Zane alone with the young doctor.

"Are you staying?" Chakwas asked as she turned to Zane.

"Yes."

"Are you sure?"

"Nothing could get me to leave my sweet one's side!"

Chakwas nodded. "Very well. Scrub up. I'll need the help."

______________________________________________

It had been a solid day that Zane had been with the humans. Had his wife not been in peril, it would have been enjoyable. The humans were hospitable and spoke gentle encouragement when Zane passed by them in a daze. They let him examine the engines of the idle craft–a very interesting, very human design, and they even had a small store of the refined edible paste Quarians carried with them when off on their Pilgrimages.

Nothing could distract him for more than a few moments though as his mind drifted back to his wife. More than anything he had wanted to stay with Mena and help bring their baby into the world, but he'd only gotten in the way as Doctor Chakwas rushed about finding instruments and trying to create a Quarian 'clean room'. He left of his own volition when the doctor warned there would be some blood when she removed Mena's enviro-suit. He didn't think he could stomach it and wanted to save the doctor the trouble of having to step over his unconscious body.

For the last few hours he'd sat in the small mess hall fiddling with a deck of cards that someone had left behind.

"How are you finding your time on the Sagan?"

Zane jumped, startled by the break in the silence. He turned in his chair to find Commander Wayne standing behind him.

"No offence Commander, but I've had better days."

"Well, you'll feel better in mere moments."

"Does that mean..." Commander Wayne nodded, a small smile on her lips. Zane jumped up and rushed past her towards the medical bay.

He arrived to a locked door. Chakwas had sealed the medical bay into as much of a hermetically sealed environment as she could. It wasn't as much as would have been on the Flotilla, but it was more than he would have gotten on the face of Baor.

He knocked frantically on the door, jumping from one foot to the other. When it slid open, he ran inside.

Doctor Chakwas stood beside the door in a full armour hard-suit, the helmet on, her regular surgical wear abandoned. She knew Quarians had very weak immune systems and she was a doctor that would take chances with her patients just because they were faster, or easier. She tapped the door control panel and it closed with a whoosh, sealing the medical bay up again.

Mena was lying on the bunk that Zane had placed her on a day ago. Her enviro-suit was off but Chakwas had a stasis field up around her to hold off the microbes and germs that might infect her in her vulnerable state.

Zane never would have thought to use biotics for medical purposes. It was clever–so clever of the doctor, and he found himself thanking any godly being there may be in the universe that it was humans that had taken them in.

Zane pressed himself against the stasis field. Cradled in Mena's bare arms was a tiny bundle that squirmed and cried. She smiled weakly at him and his knees gave out in relief. He dropped to the floor, his tears of happiness splattering the inside of his mask.

"She's beautiful out of her suit, isn't she?" Chakwas said when she saw that Mena was smiling.

"Yes." Zane choked through his tears. "Thank you for making her comfortable. She was in so much pain out there and I couldn't do anything for her..."

"Don't worry, she's conquered her birthing pains like a warrior and is going to recover as long as we can get her the right booster shots in the next day or two. I've already talked to Commander Wayne, she's been hailing the Flotilla and a ship is on its way here for you two." Chakwas said as she squatted beside where he had collapsed. Zane looked to her to see that she had removed her helmet and let down her hair. "And, most importantly, you are now the proud father of a perfectly healthy, perfectly beautiful baby girl."

Zane didn't know what to say so he didn't say anything. He simply threw his arms around Chakwas' neck, pulling her into the tightest hug she had ever received. It was a hug of absolute relief. It was a hug that spoke of thanks that could never be translated into words. It was a hug that only a man who thought he was losing everything, but by some miracle hadn't, could give. It was a hug that made Chakwas glad she'd made her way into the darkness of space even though humans were still on the outs.

She could help–she'd proved that today–and she'd keep helping.

"You're welcome," Chakwas said with a smile and her own tears of happiness. "You're so very welcome."


End file.
